Photographer Joel Hawksley walked with the 2013 Marginal Arts Parade this past Saturday. Click the photo below to go to his gallery of the parade.

From Sunday’s column:

Courtesy of Roanoke College. Travis Head’s “Reading List Yeah!” is the winner of the 2013 Juried Biennial Exhibition.

Roanoke College’s Olin Hall Galleries has 66 works of art on display by 44 artists with regional connections in the 2013 Juried Biennial Exhibition.

Held every two years, the Biennial serves as the Roanoke Valley’s principal juried art exhibit. The Biennial is open to artists who live within a 150-mile radius of Roanoke College.

Margot Norton, curatorial associate at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, judged this year’s show. First place went to Blacksburg artist Travis Head for his drawing “Reading List Yeah!” Head received $500 and will have a solo exhibition in the college’s Smoyer Gallery during the 2013-2014 exhibition season. The $300 second prize went to Roanoke artist Brett LaGue’s “Parting on Cordial Terms” and the $100 third prize went to Roanoke artist Melissa Humphrey’s “Iceblink.” Roanoke artist Deborah Dreyer and Christiansburg artist Jeffrey Rowland received $50 honorable mentions.

The show, which takes up both the Olin and Smoyer galleries, will remain up until April 5. Gallery hours are 1 to 4 p.m. daily, excluding holidays. For more information, call 375-2332 or visit roanoke.edu/olingallery.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

From Sunday’s column:

Courtesy of BanG Studios. “Phantom,” by Genesis Chapman. India ink on yupo paper.

A slightly out-of-the-way downtown Roanoke studio is providing a showcase for a Southern art superstar.

BanG Studios, run by Roanoke artists Gerry and Betsy Hale Bannan, has opened a show by former Floyd County resident Genesis Chapman.

Chapman, who now lives in Richmond, sculpts wooden puzzles shaped like fantasy creatures that can sell for more than $1,000.

But BanG Studios has a different strand of Chapman’s art on display. “I’d call it ink painting,” said Gerry Bannan.

The show, which opened Friday, gathers finely detailed drawings made in ink of rivers and streams that appear abstract at first glance but are in fact hyper-realistic renditions of the surface texture of running water. It’s these drawing that earned him recognition from literary magazine Oxford American last year as one of the top 100 “New Superstars of Southern Art.”

Many of his images record places around Bent Mountain, where he grew up and still visits. His father, Peter Chapman, also makes handcrafted wooden puzzles, which have also received national attention through Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living and other glossy magazines.

Genesis Chapman was active in the Roanoke art scene, co-organizing the yearly “Stick To Your Guns” art shows with Roanoke artist, dancer and promoter Beth Deel in the early 2000s. The Bannans also helped out with later shows.

The couple moved to Roanoke from Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1992, and have been fixtures in the art scene themselves. Betsy Bannan’s paintings were the centerpieces of the “Roanoke on the Road” performance art project in 2010, in which a group of regional artists and musicians traveled to New York and staged surprise street performances.

The name “BanG Studios” incorporates the couple’s initials, as in “B. and G.” They started renting the building at 425 Fourth St. S.W. a year ago. After much clean-up, they held their first show, an exhibit of their own work, last summer.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

Last year’s octopus float will be a giant sugar skull this year in the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival Parade, which starts at noon on Saturday, March 30 at Community High School in downtown Roanoke. Anyone is welcome to join in.

MIKE ALLEN | The Roanoke Times. Marginal Arts Festival founder Brian Counihan demonstrates one of the Easter Egg masks he’s making for the festival parade on March 30.

The Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival decided not to take chances this year.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be odd, bizarre, cutting-edge art experiences mixed into the festivities. It’s the weather they don’t want to gamble on.

For the past four years, the festival has tied its schedule to Mardi Gras, which meant it sometimes has taken place in the heart of winter. Founder Brian Counihan counts his blessings that the colorful and strange Marginal Arts Parade through downtown Roanoke has never been snowed out.

“We dodged a bullet every year,” said Roanoke artist Ralph Eaton, another of the festival’s organizers. So the artists running the festival decided to move it back a few weeks. (Eaton joked that he wished it could be held April Fool’s Day.)

The lineup this year includes an appearance from the Society for Creative Anachronism, famous for wearing medieval garb and battling with rattan swords, a contest to write a novel in 48 hours, experimental poetry, experimental art, experimental theater, and workshops that might help you understand what all these experiments are getting at. “We have a lot of professional artists involved,” Counihan said.

Of course there’s the parade at noon March 30 and the absurdist street carnival that immediately follows. This year, the festival ends with Vaudeville Night, a performance at the June M. McBroom Theater in Community High School at 302 Campbell Ave. S.E. Themes for the festival include Easter eggs, the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, and lucha libre, the sport of Mexican professional wrestling.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Festival organizers could use help decorating this giant clown shoe. Click the image to go to the Marginal Arts Festival page on Facebook.

Roanoke-based artist Susan Jamison has curated a new art exhibition, “Circus Pony,” that will open 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28 in Liminal: Alternative Artspace as one of the kickoffs of the official Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival events and last through Friday, April 12.

“Fine Young Cannibal” by Lori Field

Here’s a description from the exhibitions Facebook event page:

A circus inspired group exhibition of art from national and regional artists along with vintage circus ephemera organized as part of Roanoke, Virginia’s Marginal Arts Festival. Including works by Edward del Rosario, Lori Field, Marla Rutherford, Rob Tarbell, Jack McCaslin, Jessika Dené Tarr, John Reburn, Ursula Dilley, Rabiah Khwaja Gohar and others. During the reception there will be a performance by Tif Robinette.

Here’s Susan providing further elaboration on what’s gone into this show:

It is called “Circus Pony” and it includes contemporary art alongside vintage circus ephemera on loan from Appalachia Press. Artists in the show are from New York, DC, Colorado, and around VA: Lori Field, Edward del Rosario, Jessika Dené Tar, Marla Rutherford, Jack McCaslin, Rob Tarbell, and some regional artists as well, John Reburn, Ursula Dilley, Rabiah Khwaja Gohar. Also a strange clown pillow by an unknown artist has been loaned to the exhibition by Amy Moorefield, the director of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum. The reception will be on March 28th from 6-9. At the opening we will have a performance by regional artist, Tif Robinette who will be dressed like a pony and Tyler Godsey will be there making cotton candy.

“Exquisite” by Edward del Rosario

I selected the circus theme because people in circus culture are marginalized in a similar way that artists can be marginalized, the people involved in these professions have been seen historically as outsiders or freaks. To the general public artists can be oddities. I remember this every time I try to make cocktail party conversation and people ask me what I do for a living. Perhaps that is why so many artists are drawn to circus or side show imagery. I also selected this theme because this festival itself can be a bit of a three ring circus with many activities going on at once. It can be hard to focus on any one thing. All the activity and chaos create excitement for the art community though, so the analogy is a positive one.

“Goat and Girl” by Jessika Dené Tarr

I planned the exhibition to be a great mix of regional art, art from around Virginia and DC, along with work from artists with national profiles from New York and around the country. In other words, the best work I can get my hands on from emerging artists to the more established artists, in our region and beyond. The exhibition includes a wide variety of media; oil painting, encaustic, graphite drawing, drawings done with smoke, photography, printmaking, textiles and performance.

The show runs from now to April 12 at Liminal Artspace, but I curated it specifically for the festival. The reception during the festival will be the only time that you can see the performance piece by Tif Robinette, get your cotton candy and your letter pressed take-away souvenir of the exhibition made by myself and John Reburn of Appalachia Press.

 From my Inbox to you:

A sample from Simone Paterson’s “Diametric”

BLACKSBURG – “Diametric,” an exhibit by Virginia Tech School of Visual Arts  (http://www.sova.vt.edu/) faculty member Simone Paterson, will be on exhibit at the Perspective Gallery  (http://www.studentcenters.vt.edu/perspectivegallery/index.php) March 19 through May 11.

An opening reception will be held at the gallery on Friday, March 22, from 5 to 7 p.m. Both the exhibit and the reception are free and open to the public.

The Perspective Gallery is located on the second floor in Squires Student Center (http://www.studentcenters.vt.edu/squires/index.php). Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. The gallery is closed on Mondays.

Paterson is an associate professor of new media art and chair of studio in the School of Visual Arts, College of Architecture and Urban Studies (http://www.caus.vt.edu/). “Diametric” is a collection of sculpture and digital media artwork created by Paterson. She wrote that the quality of light is dramatically different in the Appalachian Mountains than in the land of her birth.

“In Australia the light is intense, sharp and at times blinding. Here, the mountain light is filtered through a veil of moisture, a gentle caress of pastel hues as vistas open up before you on the trail.” Paterson is also concerned with the aesthetic possibilities of technology and her work addresses the impact of technology on our lived experience. Read more »

UPDATE 3/21: Organizer Amanda Agricola shared this schedule with me:

The majority of live performances will take place from 5:00-8:30.

5-10 Cherisse Gray, “White Choice”
6-6:30 HeJin Jang, “Migrant-self the Speed of a Door”
7- 8:00 Tif Robinette “Love me Tender”
7- 8:00 Mr. Thursday, “Strutt Stream”
7- 8:00 Olchar Lindsann, “untitled”
8- 8:30 Amanda Agricola, “Come Inside”

Susan Jamison and Matt Ames have visual works up

Sarah Ingel, Erica Buechman, and Annie Waldrop have video performances playing for the duration of the show.

From Sunday’s column:

A sketch for “Love Me Tender” by Tif Robinette

Roanoke artist Amanda Agricola has organized “Cycles~,”a performance art and video exhibition that focuses on “cyclical occurrences in femininity.”

“I had a couple of women come to me with ideas for performances and I had also been thinking about planning an event in conjunction with Women’s History Month, so I decided that it would be a good occasion to have a performance exhibition,” she wrote in a Facebook message.

Participating artists include Matt Ames, Erica Buechner, Warren Fry, Cherisse Gray, Sarah Ingel, HeJin Jan, Susan Jamison, Olchar Lindsann, Tif Robinette and Annie Waldrop, with music by Mateo Marquez Marquez. Admission is free. Performances contain adult subject matter.

Agricola and Marquez previously organized “Exclamations!” a cutting-edge series of exhibitions that debuted at the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival last year and received a Perry F. Kendig Award from the now-defunct Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.

“Cycles~” takes place 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday in the former Pamela Jean Gallery at 115 Salem Ave S.E. in Roanoke. For more information, visit http://c-y-c-l-e-s.net/ or the “Cycles~” event page on Facebook.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

From Sunday’s column:

Courtesy Carrie McNutt. Carrie McNutt’s portrait of Preakness winner Shackleford was commissioned as a gift for a co-owner of the stallion.

Carrie McNutt has a penchant for painting horses.

You can see some of her equine portraiture at the 2nd Helpings Gallery in Roanoke this month, along with paintings of Peaks of Otter, poppies and Roanoke landmarks .

Her talent for portraying horses le d to her being asked to create a portrait of a champion stallion, Shackleford, winner of the 2011 Preakness Stakes. How that came about is, as she puts it, “a story all its own.”

The 2nd Helpings Gallery is run by the Roanoke Rescue Mission. McNutt was one of the winners of the nonprofit’s Permanent Art Collection competition in 2012, and her painting “Poppies Express” brightens the cover of the mission’s just-released brochure calling for 2013 entries.

“She is one of our more popular painters,” said Bud Shaw, assistant manager at 2nd Helpings. She’s had work for sale in the gallery since it opened three years ago, and before then at Art on a Mission in Tanglewood Mall. “She’s a very hands-on artist. She’s very involved in the gallery and what we do here.”

Shaw noted that McNutt’s paintings of animals sell well. “She does commission work. She will do a pet for you,” or livestock, or other animals.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

This poster from Olin Hall Galleries director Talia Logan has the details:

From my Inbox to you:

The Market Gallery

Featured Artists:

Little House” by Barbara Norman Lashley

“Among the Copper Field for the Queen” by Kim Lashley Sutliff

Ann Hale, Barbara Norman Lashley, Kim Lashley Sutliff

March 26 to April 27, 2013

Opening Reception: Friday, April 5, 2013

The Market Gallery featured artists are Ann Hale, Barbara Norman Lashley, and Kim Lashley Sutliff. Please join us to meet and chat with the artists at their reception Friday, April 5, Art by Night, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Hale will provide a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. and Lashley at 6:45 p.m., and Sutliff at 7 p.m.
Mother-daughter artists Barbara Norman Lashley and Kim Lashley Sutliff will be featured in a joint exhibit.  Their show is titled “Book Ends”. Lashley and Sutliff have collaborated by making sculptures and collages from discarded books. Some of the works are books which have been cut, torn, folded or have added collage elements to make unique wall pieces. Other works are collages using torn or cut pages from books or magazines.

Lashley graduated from Averett University with a B.A. in art.  She also holds a M.A.L.S. from Hollins.  Sutliff also graduated from Averett with a B.F.A. and also completed her M.A.L.S. at Hollins

“Millennium Square” by Ann E. Hale

Ann E. Hale is currently at work on color-filled new paintings in a variety of sizes and media for her April Featured Artists show titled, “Cycles in the Universe.”  Ann is known in the Valley as primarily an artist who draws and paints realistically.  Her lively abstract artwork is often in intimate sizes, and includes her popular fold-out “personal galleries.”  The work in this upcoming show exhibits a new approach for this 70-year old artist. Ann is the Market Gallery’s co-president and a charter gallery member.

The Market Gallery, a regional artists’ cooperative, is open 10 am to 5:30 pm Tuesday – Saturday. And is located at 23 Salem Avenue, Roanoke, VA 24011, the corner of Wall St and Salem Ave in Roanoke’s historic downtown market.

For additional information call The Market Gallery (540) 342-1177 or visit www.marketgalleryroanoke.com